a thing to cherish
by Aiko Isari
Summary: Humanity was given hope. She, ever eternal, sought his own.


_Warning for death, lots and lots of death and suicide. This is persona 3. Also vague allusions to sex and pregnancy. Please let me know if this warrants a higher rating, everyone I asked said it did not_.

* * *

The end of the world arrived with the snow.

Outside the elevator, people praised it, called to it. They wanted to die. The mundane world they lived in seemed pointless and drab, with more failures than successes, a place of sin and excess and waste. It was better, to them, to wipe the slate clean, to wipe _them_ clean, to forget them and their folly and their failures.

And their love of course. And the grief of love being lost. Bonds were a tenuous thing, fragile and thin and easy to snap.

There were, of course, voices of dissent. There was confusion, horror at the sight of the body losing all form, all rigidity all at once. There was fear as the moon, imperious and clumsily shaped over millions of human years and desperate mythological song, opened up its eye.

Nyx was a clumsy creature, a sweetheart really. Her power was what put the suffering to rest, let new things bloom to life. She did not want to do her duty, but alas, mortality was something wished for by the Almighty and not even she was immune.

Humans, however, couldn't help but desire it sooner, it seemed. In their effort to play as gods, they invoked the failsafe.

Elizabeth, for once able to sit alone as her master toiled on other efforts, shut her yellow eyes and listened. Not particularly hard, what she was looking for was loud and clear in her ears, but to take in the sensations all about her, the steady drumbeat of life out of rhythm. A heartbeat stuttering and vocal, searching and locating, terrified of the end which awaited it.

Trying, as all did, to avoid it.

Elizabeth, formerly alone, smiled. She rose to her feet in a single step and moved to the side as her master walked in, each step stooped low and creaking.

"He comes," he said to her, smiling a little wider underneath his impressive nose. "Our time is short."

"Indeed." Pride warmed her, like the book she held so close, like the memories she traced around in her mind. "It is time for the fruits of his labors."

"Do not forget yourself, little Liza," her master said, voice ever cheerful, ever guarded. "You have done well thus far."

"Your praise is high, my master." She graced him with a long practiced smile. "I have not forgotten."

In reality, though, she had. Humanity was always her fascination, much to the chagrin and bewilderment of her brother and sister. The duty to the Room came above all else, of course, but the creatures they served were indeed very fascinating. And so, for a brief, infinitesimal moment, she had- forgotten.

She could not feel the effects of such forgetfulness now, her body looked human, felt human, even responded to human activity but she had no idea – was so curious – if it would _change_ like a human body.

Elizabeth said none of this. She merely ran her fingers once more over the compendium.

Overhead, the single hand of clock turned and turned, faster and faster, the voices growing louder and louder.

Then, like the final note of a crescendo, Makoto Yuki opened the door.

* * *

Dying was not easy. There was a reason why the body took so long to die. It continued to function because it rather _liked_ doing so.

Falling in the face of death, however, made all of that _absolutely pointless._ To most people.

Makoto Yuki was not most people.

Makoto Yuki had lived with the Avatar – the practical son of Nyx – growing and living beside him for so long, that they were practically twins in a way. Without him, he had been empty and coming back here had shown that to him so clearly, it was almost disgusting.

Being home had also brought…. Had also brought so many people to him. Such a big, wide, open universe for someone at the age of seventeen. And no matter what happened today, no mater if he succeeded or failed, he would not go beyond that age. He _felt it_ , bone-deep and in every gap between them. He, really and truly, wanted to _cry._

But Yuki did not. He _could not._ There was a time to cry and a time to smile and a time to quit and a time to stand and this was the time to stand.

This was his time to _fly._

And weightless, he did.

Up to Nyx, down to Nyx. There were no directions in death, all roads led to it, all roads followed it. That was how you ate and slept and drank and made love and made wrecks. Death was supposed to begin anew and did not discriminate because if everyone lived forever in this world no one would ever strive.

The egg, wreathed in spiderwebs made of something long since immortalized, glowed orange and down fell a tear. A single tear and the strength of it threatened to erode him into ashes right then and there but-

Shinjiro. Kind and rough edges, guilty and so cold and-

Koromaru, smarter than he should be and stronger than anyone deserved-

They supported. Everyone's voices, everyone's dreams and hopes and wishes because he cradled them all in his palms and he _would not waste them, he could not-_

Somewhere in the distance, he heard a baby's cry and a woman's soft laugh mixed with a boy's helpless terror-filled understanding and he -

wondered

where

his parents

were.

 _(they were right beside him of course, they always had been for they were with death when death took them all, even him. Yuki was merely dropped and picked up again)_

* * *

To Elizabeth, really, the choice wasn't very hard.

The room was about to change, to shift and search and come about for its new home, its new master, its new shape. It had to or it would be quite boring. Nothing quite as entertaining as a room that provided for its people after all.

It did need better tea. She had told her master and over and over to provide. Now that she was leaving, however, now that the humans had taken care of things, she supposed it would be a rather moot point, wouldn't it? Margaret liked the tea here just fine and Margaret was more than happy to come back. Well, not really. The work, she liked, replacing her sister, not so much.

Elizabeth, body shifting, body changing little by little so much slower than it should be but then, she wasn't human so it was probably fine. Long as she reached him and became human eventually, it would work out and this plan would work.

If it didn't?

Well, she had dozens of other ideas.

* * *

No one was with him at the end of the world.

Well, no, that's not true. There was Erebus, but he was busy being angry most of the time, angry and hurt and wanting it to stop so of course they were asking Nyx. Nyx, who really was sweet. Nyx, who sang to him, to the souls with her, to the other creatures who climbed in and out and in and out. She sang a sad, wordless song and he wondered rather if she wanted to be happy or not.

"I do," she told him. "It's just very hard when everyone hates your job until they get there. And sometimes even when you get there."

Minato laughed. It was such a new thing to do. He couldn't help it. It was true. It was a biological error but it kept them on their toes.

The attacks from Erebus didn't even hurt, really. They just rattled the chains and shook the moon and the stars in the sky. It was more disorienting. He'd liked to change his clothes eventually.

Still, it got monotonous after a while. He wrote an entire book in his head, transcribed somewhere by Ryoji he's sure because for all the guy had claimed he was sleeping and so was his mother, he was bopping about telling her about the modern world like it hadn't almost been destroyed and it was just so much fun.

So he probably wrote it down somewhere. He probably wanted a sequel. Entertained the dead a load because what else really happened when you were dead or in his case, dearly departed and dearly beloved.

He hadn't wanted to do the western marriage tripe that was so becoming in style by the time he'd keeled over in Aigis' lap but it had happened. With Death.

Yuki had been there some amount of time (if time and space did really exist to a person once they died at any rate) before he even bothered to ask, "Can we get a divorce, Nyx?"

She had laughed and it really was beautiful.

Except it wasn't her after all. It was-

"Oh gods," he whispered and he made himself blink, he had to because there was Elizabeth and she looked _radiant_. Like she'd had the time of her immortal life in this past eternity. A part of him hoped so because she was so sheltered she had never seen a slide in real life and didn't understand that snow should be cold and that a person's bedroom was really only private due to societal conventional nonsense and that being warm was difficult if you'd never had any practice.

"I had to, what is the phrase," she said with a slightly different smile. "Living it up with the both of us?"

"Close," he replied, helplessly, desperately. He wants to stop needing to blink (which technically it doesn't but human behaviors made everything so much less boring. "Why are you here?"

Elizabeth blinked at him. "No "I missed you?" Or "It's been a long time, hello"'"

Yuki twitched, he didn't mean to but that damnable teasing smile was a little cruel at the corners and unnecessary, she was just finding human cultural things to tease him with to remind him she loved to learn. "Elizabeth-"

"I found a way to free you," she said. Interrupted, really, but a lack o normal social conventions would do that to a person. "There was one way but I found you may not like it. This way keeps the seal and preserves you and gives Erebus something else to chew on."

Home. That was what this meant. Going home and living a good long time past the age of eighteen, a good long time and telling his friends he was so sorry he didn't explain or tell the truth or do anything but they saved his life for the last year of it and-

Yuki stared at her and felt new tears well up, brand new and raw and hard and he hugged her tight.

To his surprise, she hugged him back.

* * *

 _ **A/N:** _Mami said she wanted Makoto so here is Makoto. And Elizabeth joined in but I started with her to be fair.

Challenges: Tomoe prize fic for the AMF drabblechap comp, a/m diversity writing E48.


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